Abu Dhabi, FP2: Bottas moves to the front

Last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix winner Valtteri Bottas hit the top of the timesheets at the Yas Marina Circuit, edging FP1’s quickest man, Max Verstappen by just four hundredths of a second, with Daniel Ricciardo third in the second Red Bull.

Bottas set the pace in the opening part of the session, using ultrasoft tyres to hold top spot just over two tenths of a second ahead of Verstappen, who also ran on ultrasofts.

Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen was the first to make the move to hypersoft tyres for a qualifying simulation and the switch immediately vaulted him to the top of the order with a time of 1:37.461. He was followed by team-mate Sebastian Vettel who took second place behind the Finn.

Bottas was winding up for his run, however, and the Mercedes man reclaimed top spot with a lap of 1:37.236s. Five-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton looked like eclipsing his team-mate but an imperfect final sector meant his qualifying sim yielded a time of 1:37.443.

The two tenths of a second gap allowed both Red Bulls to slot between the Mercedes cars, with Verstappen beating Ricciardo to P2 by 0.148s.

With Hamilton ahead of the two Ferraris at the end of the session, best of the rest honours went to Haas’ Romain Grosjean. The Frenchman finished the 90 minutes with a best time of 1:38.060, eight tenths of a second off Bottas’ pace. Nico Hulkenberg took eight place for Renault, with the German being the last min within a second of Bottas’ best time.

Ninth place in the session went to Kevin Magnussen in the second Haas. The Dane finished 1.082 off the pace with Racing Point Force India’s Esteban Ocon just eight hundredths of a second further back in 10th place.